Redemption: Snippet 7

Here it is again. Boris #4 should be out before the New Year. Sorry for all the delays. Again, this is presented as is. ENJOY!

It was his third day patrolling, and they were about to head back. They’d found a few places that showed and smelt of recent human activity. The smell of anyone in the area ahead of them should have been brought to them by the wind that was blowing towards them. Olaf called time.

Though they had found tracking sign, the Weres had been universally thwarted in tracking anyone by scent. They kept encountering patches of strong ‘woodlands’ odor that had overwhelmed their sense of smell.

Olaf was reasonably sure the hide they had found a half mile back was a day old or less. Still, even in his other form, the human scents had been faint. They were the smells of people who were taking extra effort to smell like the environment. Rubbing dirt and strong smelling plants over themselves.

They headed back to the camp, the wind at their back, relatively unconcerned. They had patrolled the area only hours before, and apart from the hide they had found no new sign of other humans. None of the telltale vampire scent on the wind.

Still, his patrol moved cautiously. Overconfidence in the shuttle was what had gotten them into trouble in the first place. They were halfway back, and the breeze went still.

Olaf’s nose twitched, as did Andre’s. “Cover!” He shouted out the order. There was a human odor in the air now the wind wasn’t blowing it away from them. His patrol quickly dived behind rises, trees and whatever else they could find. Olaf himself took cover behind a tree.

He heard rustles in the brush ahead that confirmed his suspicions.

“It would seem that we are at an impasse,” a voice from the woods said. “We have all five of you located. A firefight was not what we had planned, but we will take it if that’s all that is on offer.”

Olaf thought quickly, then decided provocation was the best option if they were the enemy. “That’s all you have! We will not surrender to a blood drinker’s lackeys!” He shouted back. He loosened the straps on his patrol webbing, preparing to shift if he needed too.

However, he was not convinced they served the vampire. He thought he’d be able to smell what Danislav described as ‘old, off blood’ on a vampire’s troops. Especially if it had kept to one lair for some time, as many did.

There was silence for a moment, then a snarling feminine voice answered, “We have nothing to do with that bitch! Most of us are survivors of attempts to ‘cleanse’ our homes with some of her monsters.” That sounded more like this vampire was nearby and directing the Nosferatu. That was a small relief.

Olaf hesitated. If he took it at face value, then he risked looking a credulous fool in any event. Either that or arousing their suspicions about his motives. “I guess it is a standoff then. I sure as hell can’t trust that you are not working for the blood drinkers!”